With the wealth of information available on BiggerPockets and numerous other sites and books, I'm not sure where to start.

We are well visited for our 3 tier 1 universities, the research triangle park, travelling educators and nurses, and students.

But you know enough to be able to fill in the blanks and get close... public records, utility companies, visiting with residents, walking the park and networking with other park owners. 

Should I be visiting, asking neighbors questions, getting a feel for the neighborhood and home (in person rather than just off of online research) before buying or making offers? 

For me - Subto has been tremendously helpful for me.The post wasn't about BP, which I thoroughly enjoy visit regularly and use the online calc tools incredibly often.~ Randy  

I'm trying to sell some prime building lots right now and all of the builders I've talked to don't want them mostly due to being backlogged on work thanks to labor shortages and not wanting to deal with the huge hassle and time commitment/expense to get a building permit.Ironically, politicians in the past have contributed to the problem by actually going to job sites to round up and deport workers because many are undocumented.

If you can visit, I always say go for it.

Go to Etsy and search for "rental property tracker," and you will find hundreds of nice spreadsheets to track 10-20 rentals, usually for under $10.Software has extremely helpful features like online payments, marketing syndication (click a button, and your property is advertised on multiple sites), electronic document review/signing, maintenance tracking, and owner reports.

I have only been looking at residential, single family, but today I found two commercial spaces (office) that would be a great fit for my growing day job business as a lactation consultant (currently operate just by doing home visits, but want a dedicated office space to see clients one day).

Am I better of just running my own rental comps instead of using the HUD User site?